One Thing Leads To Another

Is there a 'physics of society'? Philip Ball's investigation into human nature ranges from Hobbes and Adam Smith to modern work on traffic flow and market trading, across economics, sociology and psychology. Ball shows how much of human behaviour we can understand when we cease trying to predict and analyse the behaviour of individuals and look to the impact of hundreds, thousands or millions of individual human decisions, in circumstances in which human beings both co-operate and conflict, when their aggregate behaviour is constructive and when it is destructive. By perhaps Britain's leading young science writer, this is a deeply thought-provoking book, causing us to examine our own behaviour, whether in buying the new Harry Potter book, voting for a particular party or responding to the lures of advertisers.

Internationally acclaimed designer and illustrator Dan Stiles offers a collection of over 200 concert posters for many of today's leading acts including Arctic Monkeys, The XX, Sonic Youth, Girl Talk, and hundreds more. From Indie Rock to Dance Punk, these lovingly screen-printed posters provide a visual narrative of the music that shaped the last decade. Including extensive writing by Stiles and a foreword by famed rock poster historian Paul Grushkin, One Thing Leads to Another is a glorious celebration of both music and design.

The iconic graphic designer presents “a self-analysis of his creative process . . . [in] arguably his proudest accomplishment” (The Atlantic). Milton Glaser is perhaps the most celebrated graphic designer in the world. As a young man, he read a phrase that stayed with him through his life: “In Search of the Miraculous.” One could say that all human experience is a miracle—memory, color, taste, Vermeer, stars, watermelon, etc. For those like Glaser, the act of making things that move the mind is perhaps the deepest aspiration to the miraculous. In this volume, he has chosen work, largely created by him over the last five years, to demonstrate how one concept leads to another. Through fascinating juxtapositions, readers will gain insights into Glaser’s oeuvre, journeying with him as he discovers that seemingly new designs frequently come out of provocative ideas taken from the distant past. “Elegant . . . The text and the picture positively embrace and dance together.” —The New York Times “To younger graphic designers, Glaser has the stature of Marlon Brando in Hollywood . . . He appears to have thought more deeply about what he makes than many lionized by the contemporary art world and its market.” —San Francisco Chronicle “In Search of the Miraculous aptly captures the tension involved in reconciling the artist’s aspirations to do great work and the client’s objectives. This book eloquently, articulately, and with great panache, and provocation, illuminates the extraordinary outcomes that emerge when the artistic process miraculously works.” —New York Journal of Books

When his father's bankruptcy lands him, at age 9, in an orphanage in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dan McCall escapes to live in a hotel room with his dad, and of necessity to learn independence. He follows his natural curiosity about people into ceaseless adventures - exploring ethnically-mixed city streets, hitchhiking New England roads, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and enrolling in Depression-era summer military programs. Along the way, Dan discovers and nurtures his own deep love of learning; he haunts public libraries, engages teachers and school friends, and rebels against his Irish Catholic heritage. Lacking money for college, he rides the rails across country to harvest crops and falls in with a series of down-and-outers scrambling to make a living. He flirts with communism and socialism, and stays briefly on a farm with intellectuals creating their own institution of learning. Dan is ultimately caught up in World War II, where his experience as a hospital orderly places him in the South Pacific as a medic slated to go ashore in battle. This often-rollicking and always fascinating coming-of-age story, which ends as Dan enters college, is in the category of adventures too amazing to be fiction.

Over the past four decades, policy makers and stakeholders have struggled with the challenge of promoting industrial development in low and middle-income economies in general, and in sub-Saharan African (SSA) in particular. With the rise of the Asian Drivers (China and India) and their increase in demand for raw materials to fuel growth, the turn of the millennium saw a commodity price super-cycle emerge, benefiting a number of resource rich countries in SSA. Faced with the specter of the Resource Curse, this book examines an industrial pathway where countries can Make the Most of Commodities. Bringing together ground-breaking research in the commodity sectors, this book uses case-studies to explore conduits for industrial development, focusing on backward and forward linkages, with policy advice for both governments and corporate sectors.

Opposites attract more than trouble in the latest captivating Regency romancefromSusanna Craig. Amanda Bartlett, widowed Countess of Kingston, is a woman beyond reproach. Married at nineteen, she dutifully provided the Earl with an heir and a spare before his death three years ago. Since then, Amanda has lived a simple, quiet life. A life that, if she were honest, has become more than a trifle dull. So when an adventure literally drops into her lap, in the shape of a mysterious book, she intends to make the most of it—especially if it brings her closer to a charismatic stranger. . . . Major Langley Stanhope, an intelligence officer and master mimic known as the Magpie, needs to retrieve the code book that has fallen into Amanda’s hands. The mistaken delivery has put them both in grave danger and in a desperate race to unearth a traitor. It’s also stirred an intense, reckless attraction. Langley believes the life he leads is not suitable for a delicate widow, but it seems he may have underestimated the lady’s daring . . . and the depths of their mutual desire. . . . PRAISE FOR WHO’S THAT EARL "Craig delights with a fast-paced, intrigue-filled plot and expertly developed characters. Regency fans will eagerly anticipate future installments." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review